Vertically swingable conveyer and chute



Oct. 7, 1952 E. M. CROSLAND 2,612,985

VERTICALLY SWINGABLE CONVEIYER AND CHUTE Filed Feb. 13, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.5.

INVENTOR. fifvmrc/M/ller Cros/a/m,

E. M. CROSLAND VERTICALLY'SWINGABLE CONVEYER AND CHUTE Oct. 7, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 15, 1948 INVENTOR. WM

BY m Patented Oct. 7, 1952 VERTICALLY SWING ABLE CONVEYER AND HUTE Edward Milner Crosland, Culcheth, near Warrington, England, assignor to T. & T. Vicars Limited, N ewton-le-Willows, England, a British Application February 13, 1948, Serial No. 8,224 In Great Britain February 7, 1940 Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946 Patent expires February 7, 1960 The present invention relates to improvements in conveying arrangements for individual articles such as biscuits.

Biscuits or the like articles which may be disposed upon, for instance, an oven conveyor or tray are often disposed thereon in quincunx or staggered relationship due to their prearrangement in this relationship as they are cut from a sheet of dough with the desire to leave as little intermediate scrap as possible. It is desirable to bring these into non-overlapping rows to facilitate their stacking. This has often been done by interposing between an oven conveyor or a conveying element, and a delivery conveyor, a dribble tray or distribution board having grooves or channels by means of which biscuits or the like articles in alternate rows are diverted to one side to take up an in line position with the biscuits on the next row.

The speed of displacement of the biscuits or the like articles down this dribble tray or distribution board will depend on the heat of the articles. For instance when starting up in the morning the cooling device or chamber contiguous to an oven will be obviously very cold and the biscuits will therefore be cooler than after the biscuit making plant has been running for some time. l hese cool biscuits will tend to slide slower and may not automatically sort themselves as desired. Again after warm biscuits have been travelling over the dribble tray or board for some time they will travel easily and may move too fast.

In order to avoid this disadvantage according to the present invention the angle of inclination of a dribble or distribution board between a pair of conveyors is adapted to be adjustable as desired, the level or plane of one conveyor relatively to the other conveyor being simultaneously altered therewith. By this means the speed of transference of a biscuit or the like article from one conveyor to the other conveyor can be controlled as desired.

The invention is more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of one form of construction.

Figure 2 is a corresponding front view of the tray.

Figure 3 is a section of the tray on the line A--A of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a section of the tray on the line B-B of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a plan view of the arrangement of Figure 1.

3 Claims. (Cl. 198-73) Fig. 6 is a contour view of the top face of the chute;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view of the chute taken at the point D in Fig. 2;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of the chute taken at the point E in Fig. 2; and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view taken of the chute at the point C in Fig. 2.

A conveyor band I delivers the biscuits across stationary knife 2 on to a sloping aligning or dribble board 3, the lower end of which is disposed over the continuation of conveyor I, which runs under fixed division strips 4 to separate the lines of biscuits. A table 5 over which conveyor I runs is pivoted at the receiving end It and has a delivery roller I at the other end. The fulcrum of delivery roller I also acts as a pivot for a structime 6 which carries the interchangeable aligning or dribble board 3. This structure at one end also carries a roller 9 supported in rolling contact on a track [0. Levers II on either end of shaft I2 are connected to lifting arms I3 so that by rotating the shaft I2 the levers can be moved up or down to give a varying degree of inclination to the feeding web I and the aligning board 3. The roller 9 moving on track I ll keeps the delivery end of the aligning board in the correct position for the biscuits to enter between the guides 4. If the shaft I2 is rotated in an anti-clockwise direction until lever I I contacts with stop I4 then the board 3 will be in its highest position and if it is moved in a clockwise direction until lever II reaches stop I5 it is in its lowest position.

It will consequently be seen that the angle of the dribble board or distribution board 3 can be varied as desired, and the end feeding conveyor I modified simultaneously in position to suit the particular adjustment at any moment.

It will be preferred to direct the biscuits first to one side and then to the other, the degrees of these two displacements being different as shown in Figure 2, biscuits being displaced first to the right in the part I B of the board 3 and then to the left by an increased amount in the part ll of the board 3. The edges of the guide grooves I 8 and I9 respectively present a herring bone formation, the grooves I8 of dog-tooth or other section being reversely inclined to the grooves I 9 as can be seen from a comparison of Figures 3 and 4.

I declare that what I claim is:

1. A conveyor arrangement for individual articles comprising in combination a conveyor, a pair of guide pulleys for said conveyor relatively adjustable in height, a fixed series of guide fins above part of said conveyor, an adjustable dribble board pivotally connected at one end to one of said guide pulleys supporting one end of said 2. A conveyor arrangement for individual 7 articles comprising in combination a conveyor, 9.

pair of guide pulleys for said conveyor, means to adjust the height of one pulley relatively to the other pulley, and adjustable dribble board freely pivotally connected at one end to said one pulley, and fixed means to support the other end of said dribble board.

3. A conveyor arrangement for individual articles comprising in combination a conveyor, a pair of guide pulleys for said conveyor, means to adjust the height of one pulley relatively to the other pulley, an adjustable dribble boa-rd freely pivotally connected at one end to said one pulley,

4 a roller mounted at the other end 01' said dribble board and an inclined track vfor said roller.

EDWARD MILNER 'CROSLAND.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 215,818 Hqugh May 27, 1879 432,637 McConnell July 22, 1890 779,139 Spence Jan. 3, 1905 1,266,668 Drew May 21, 1918 1,278,291 Balwick Sept. 10, 1918 1,613,308 Bradt Jan. 4, 1927 2,334,004 Herzog Nov. 9, 1943 2,347,164 Petrilli Apr. 18, 1944 

